I Was a Teenage Werewolf is probably the best known movie from American International's '50s teen horror cycle, but that doesn't makes it any better than the others (Blood of Dracula, I was A Teenage Frankenstein, How to Make a Monster).
Michael Landon plays volatile teenager Tony Rivers, whose anger issues keep on getting him into hot water. Eventually, the lad turns to psychiatrist Alfred Brandon (Whit Bissell) for help; instead of solving Tony's problems, the doctor uses the hotheaded teen as a guinea pig in an experiment, hypnotising him and injecting him with a serum that regresses the boy both mentally and physically, causing him to transform into a hairy, snarling, blood-thirsty beast.
Films about disaffected youths were all the rage in the '50s, as epitomised by James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause: being an emotionally troubled outcast of society was cool. I Was A Teenage Werewolf was clearly designed to cash in on the craze, but Michael Landon's Tony is such an obnoxious tool that I fail to see how any young movie fan could have identified with him. I certainly don't understand how the character managed to keep a circle of friends, and a girlfriend, with the terrible way he treats them all. Tony's toxic personality irritated me so much that I was glad when he was gunned down in the end. That'll teach him to be such a jerk.
As with Blood of Dracula and How To Make a Monster, this film features a rock and roll song and dance number-Eeny Meeny Miney Moe-and it's awful!
5/10. I guess if you've enjoyed the other AIP teen horrors, there's no reason why you shouldn't dig this one too - it's virtually the same.
Michael Landon plays volatile teenager Tony Rivers, whose anger issues keep on getting him into hot water. Eventually, the lad turns to psychiatrist Alfred Brandon (Whit Bissell) for help; instead of solving Tony's problems, the doctor uses the hotheaded teen as a guinea pig in an experiment, hypnotising him and injecting him with a serum that regresses the boy both mentally and physically, causing him to transform into a hairy, snarling, blood-thirsty beast.
Films about disaffected youths were all the rage in the '50s, as epitomised by James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause: being an emotionally troubled outcast of society was cool. I Was A Teenage Werewolf was clearly designed to cash in on the craze, but Michael Landon's Tony is such an obnoxious tool that I fail to see how any young movie fan could have identified with him. I certainly don't understand how the character managed to keep a circle of friends, and a girlfriend, with the terrible way he treats them all. Tony's toxic personality irritated me so much that I was glad when he was gunned down in the end. That'll teach him to be such a jerk.
As with Blood of Dracula and How To Make a Monster, this film features a rock and roll song and dance number-Eeny Meeny Miney Moe-and it's awful!
5/10. I guess if you've enjoyed the other AIP teen horrors, there's no reason why you shouldn't dig this one too - it's virtually the same.